i'm supposed to be writing prayers for the worship service i am helping to lead tomorrow night. i haven't done that yet. i probably should--but not right now. i'm sure i have email to write or something.

happy new year's eve eve. or whatever we would call that.

since we have Christmas Eve, and New Year's Eve, what about Valentine's Eve? no, I take it back, that's just more time for depression surrounding that particular Hallmark Holiday. Let's see....Labor Day Eve? Martin Luther King Jr. Day Eve? what about personal holidays...birthdays, anniversaries...we really should get the Eve of those days off as holiday, don't you think?

I think so. that would add up to roughly 10 extra days of holiday a year, I think! and if you're catholic, do you get holiday for saint's days? if so, what about the eve of important saints, like the patron saint of your parish or your profession or your nationality or your deadly disease or your favorite actor? I suppose, though, then you would have about 635 days of holiday a year, since some saint's days overlap. hmm. that could cause some economical problems i suppose. ah, well, that's what your community is for, right?

hmm. we should look into this.

on a total tangent: in chicago today it was 55 degrees. what is that? i loved it, of course, but am completely shocked! tomorrow, probably 12. yippee.

Monday, December 30, 2002

a young lady from the junior high youth group, whom i mentored last year and had a lot of discussion and fun times with, was baptized tonight at the evening service at church! We had talked a lot about it and she really wanted it, and one of my tasks last year was to teach her about it, etc. so imagine my excitement to be able to actually be here when it happened! yay! we went out for ice cream afterwards too. woohoo! it is so exciting to see this young disciple officially become part of the Christian family. :-) yay!

so anyway, i am now embarking on a week of doing "nothing". Except for writing prayers for the New Years Eve service, making new bulletins for Taize, visiting people, etc....reading ten books for my january term class....yes..."nothing". hehe!

need new year's resolution ideas?
I suggest volunteering at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, or food bank. there are ever increasing numbers of needy people, especially with the economy being less than ideal...more people are finding themselves in hard times than they have in a very long time, and these places are in desperate need of volunteers! if you want an idea for giving something other than time, donate to these places. shelters usually need toiletries, particularly in travel or sample sizes--you know, soap, shampoo, men's razors, etc. food items are almost always welcomed at food banks and soup kitchens.
enjoy....you'll make someone's day.

Wednesday, December 25, 2002

i'm back at mom and dad's house. good times in the car, at grandma's house, at the Lord of the Rings (which was long--i had to go to the restroom, and i looked at my watch twice. the first time there were still nearly two hours to go. oy.) anyway, lots of sitting down. i have managed to learn some new hebrew vocab though. yippee!

so anyway, it's christmas eve. i hope you are all having a great celebration of the Incarnation. it's time to welcome the birth of a new world again! may it be a lovely christmas celebration, with true understanding of what has happened to us. peace be with you all.

Sunday, December 22, 2002

Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go...

literally.
tomorrow morning we are driving the five (+) hours to grandma's house. We are coming back on Tuesday. the route involves a river, a mountain, some woods...some very fun hills that my bro and i used to refer to as the "rollercoaster hills" because mom would go really fast down and then coast through the upturn, so you felt like you were on that first down-up of a roller coaster....there's even a covered bridge on the way to grandma's house. isn't this exciting?

I sense approximately 5 hours of hebrew vocabulary studying ahead........perhaps i am becoming a fortune teller instead of a minister?

see y'all later. perhaps not until after the grandmother's christmas (before christmas) adventure. perhaps in the middle of it. we'll see.

if you get stuck for christmas craft ideas, you obviously have too much time on your hands. if you are so inclined, go shopping, or start wrapping. otherwise, i recommend the first chapter of Matthew and the first two chapters of Luke (both found near the beginning of the New Testament section of your pew Bible, probably stolen from your local congregation when you were roughly age 10...now potentially located on a bottom shelf of your bookshelf....look harder....), if you wish to acquaint yourself with the purpose of this holiday. Failing all of that, just do a google search for "christmas craft ideas" and see what you find. have fun. happy weekend!

christmas craft of the daypalm crosses.
oh wait, that's for palm sunday, a good three months (+) from now.
the real craft of the day is:
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
papier mache ornaments.
blow up balloons just a little. to roughly ornament size, basically.
papier mache the outside. let dry.
pop balloon (with a pin or something).
paint the outside.
poke a hole big enough for a paper clip in the top.
unfold a paper clip into a C shape.
stick one end into ball. seal hole with glue. let dry.
hang.

Saturday, December 21, 2002

what does this mean, you ask? well, I just happen to be about to translate for you. ready?

"i have a catapult. give me all the money, or i will fling an enormous rock at your head."

right in the christmas spirit, eh? check back later (or tomorrow) for another useful latin phrase--perhaps something jolly or merry, suitable for framing...or for christmas decorations or gifts. hehehe!

Friday, December 20, 2002

clever christmas craft idea of the day:photo cards.
take your fave pictures of someone.
make a collage, or just paste one or two photos on a card.
decorate the edges with holly, misteltoe, poinsettas...(drawn in markers, of course).
write a christmas message inside.
personalize with a lovely note just for the person.
decorate an envelope--especially with stars, greenery, candles, etc. (again with markers...duh)
send as a christmas card!

today i threw stuff away. lots of it.
i also dug out a box from deep in one of the closets in my parent's basement. it is full of pictures from when my mom was younger--in college, mostly. pics from when she travelled in europe, from her camp fire days, from all kinds of stuff. it is very cool--as it should be, given the sheer amount of work it took to get the dumb box out of the closet. it was in the very back corner, on the very bottom---thus necessitating the moving about approximately 10 boxes and one piece of furniture in order to dig it out. it was worth it. and when mom sees what i'm going to do with some of this stuff, it will be worth it to her too. granted, she doesn't think that now because my bro and i are engaged in making fun of fashion from the 70's. hehehe. it really was bad, wasn't it--oy.

Thursday, December 19, 2002

happy travelling, for all of you that are doing that this week/weekend.
happy shopping, for all of you who still have that to do.
happy nutcracker viewing, for those of you who, like me, will be seeing the Nutcracker this season.
Oh yeah, did I mention that I got Nutcracker tickets for Saturday at the Pacific Northwest Ballet?
i did.
very exciting.
ta.

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

i have successfully arrived at home-home. a nearly tearful goodbye, over 11 hours of travelling, 3/4 of a book, a stop at krispy kreme, a slightly snowy/slushy mountain pass, and some funtime later, i am here. i slept until noon today. yay!

i know i've been slacking a little on the christmas craft ideas--packing, travelling, etc--so today there will be two. are you ready for this?

can also be done with cookie dough i think, but don't expect that to last as long.

secondlight catchers/window decorations.
things you need: plastic wrap, markers.
spread the plastic wrap on some white paper (you might need to tape it to the back of the paper or something so it is quite taut and won't move around).
draw/color holiday scenes or designs on the plastic wrap with markers. be careful not to touch after you've drawn, or you will have marker all over your skin.
when the picture is done, put another piece of plastic wrap on top. take off the white paper. secure the two pieces of plastic wrap together.
hang in a window or near other light source.
enjoy the pretty light design.

Saturday, December 14, 2002

Ok people, it is now only 11 days until christmas. so, from now until christmas (or until i run out of ideas) i'll be posting craft ideas. Christmas tree ornaments, decorations, food ideas, cards, gifts...you name it. One per day (unless I think of more...but then you can be sure that i'll run out!).

the first of many brilliant christmas craft ideas.kid friendly!
Painted Lightbulb Christmas Tree Ornament:
get a lightbulb. (any shape will do)
get acrylic paint.
paint whatever you want on the bulb. let it dry. (a good way to do that is to get a box, cut a hole in it the size of the bottom of the bulb, and to stick the bulb in so it stands up and the paint won't rub off on anything!)
(this is the grown-up part): wrap wire around the bottom of the bulb (where it would go in the socket) and make a big loop (so you can hang it up on the tree!). secure somehow (twisting should work).
hang on your tree!

anatomically correct reindeer in Christmas displays. Who thinks this is a good idea?
especially when the anatomically correct parts look like shiny christmas ornaments?
can you imagine giving a child an anatomically correct stuffed reindeer?
would you give them an anatomically correct doll?
would you put an anatomically correct human in a christmas display at a shopping mall?
is that a double standard? to put anatomically correct animals but not humans? i mean, if we wouldn't put a human, why an animal? is it any less "indecent"? is it indecent at all, or are we just perpetuating prudery? where are the sociologists and psychologists on the subject of potential indecency as it relates to anatomically correct animals in mall displays?
remember in The Little Mermaid, the big controversy about the priest who is doing the wedding between prince-what's-his-name and the ursula-as-evil-woman, and how there's a frame where he has an erection? there was lots of uproar about all the subconscious sex references in disney movies (the lion king has the word sex in the dust in one scene, but only if you literally watch frame-by-frame...oy). first of all, who sits around and looks for that stuff? but besides that, is the priest with an erection in the presence of multiple beautiful women any different than an anatomically correct reindeer? Would it have been better if the anatomically correct priest had christmas ornaments for balls?
hmm. that would have been very funny, actually. :-)

Friday, December 13, 2002

it's all over. yay.
i went out last night, slept in this morning, am going dancing tonight, will probably sleep in tomorrow morning....tomorrow evening a friend of mine is proposing to his girlfriend and i am helping get the chapel all decorated and ready...it's going to be so pretty! :-) home home (yakima) on monday. good times.

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

i have a cold. i hate that. who knew that one nose could produce so much...something...? ugh. I have used an ENTIRE box of tissues today. that can't be good. especially since I don't have any more at home. I will have to borrow another box from Miranda in order to survive the night. can you believe i have to take two final exams tomorrow?

What do these people have in common? and where are they from? and why do we care?

Schleirmacher
Barth
Moltmann
Niebuhr
Westminster Divines
Edwards
Rogers
anyone else who's ever written a completely unintelligible theological work that they would care to infest seminaries with, frustrating students and ensuring that they will never be quoted in a sermon ever.

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

yesterday was Miranda's birthday. happy birthday!
we had a great time, surprising her with all the places we went. We had dinner at a mexican restaurant (her fave type o' food). We came home and made ourselves all cute and then took her to the Sun Dial, which is essentially the Signature Room of Atlanta. It's at the top of the tallest building in the city, on the 73rd floor or so. It's very trendy, very cool, the outer edge of the lounge rotates around the inner portion--so in the just-over-three hours we were there we circled the entire place three times. :-) We had champagne and strawberries, and we generally hung out. It was great fun! :-) I recommend it.

what I don't recommend is getting colds. I feel on the verge of one and I hate that. My throat is a little icky and i spent much of last night sneezing/blowing my nose. where's my echinacea?

Monday, December 09, 2002

One exam down, about half of a take home done, and two in class exams to study for.

it's going to be a long week, people.

at least it isn't feezing outside. yesterday: high temperature in chicago was the low temperature here. that's why i moved here, after all! :-)

I assume you've all heard that united airlines filed for bankruptcy...that's bad. i fly united more than any other airline, and all my flights between now and february are on united. i need those frequent flier miles! oy.
maybe if they advertised less. or gave up the rhapsody in blue--that's some royalties right there, right? see! i saved them money! woohoo! (ha!)

Sunday, December 08, 2002

ooh...exciting news from the DePaul music school.
The new clarinet teacher they hired for this year has been fired.
After one quarter.
He was apparently a really bad teacher....so the students ran a bit of a mutiny, and he's been fired.
nice work, guys! keep up the DePaul reputation so our degrees are worth something! many sincere thanks.

right...
so i still haven't written the exam. i haven't even opened it yet. yes, i'm still procrastinating.
I think I'll do my Reformed outline, and save OT for tomorrow.
yes, tomorrow....
i'm even going to church tomorrow. i'm such a good girl. yes, yes, good girl! :-) because you know, down here in the south that's what you do on sunday, and if you don't you might as well be a leper or something. especially if you are a seminarian.
so, as a good seminarian, i am going to outline my reformed theology reading so i can go to church tomorrow and write my OT exam and start on the hebrew translation. yay.

Friday, December 06, 2002

I should point out that it wasn't raining this afternoon.
I took a nap anyway.
It was, however, cold, cloudy, and generally ugh. And it did rain last night. just not today, while I was napping.
that's ok. I was up late last night while it was raining, so it follows that of course I would sleep while it wasn't.
right?

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Do you think it's unfair to lure a person to a school located in a warmer climate than where the prospective student curretnly lives, knowing full well that there are things like ice storms?

I do.

There's a big ice storm coming. very soon. these things apparently make life hell, knock out power, cause many issues with transportation and everything else, not to mention the fact that the temperature must clearly be below freezing in order for there to be ice.

I moved here because it was supposed to be warmer.
everyone keeps telling me "just wait, in january and february when it's 70 degrees and the temperature in Chicago hasn't been above zero in 9 weeks and won't be above zero for at least another 9 weeks, you'll be glad."

Tuesday, December 03, 2002

Monday, December 02, 2002

Monday, monday. I overslept, was a few minutes late to work, have done essentially nothing yet today...and have to go to class in an hour. oy. oh, for the class-free monday that many of my friends have. Thankfully, I am done with my paper though, so i can go to trivia night tonight! woohoo!

the chapel is all pretty, thanks to my and Sarah's handiwork with greens and candles yesterday. Nothing crashed to the floor last night, so that's good! I am sure that the greens in one window (in particular) are going to shift, sending the candle and its globe to the hardwood in a glorious crash. oh dear. four more days...

Sunday, December 01, 2002

The Mozart Effect Really Does Work

One baptism paper, done. That's right, 7.5 pages (ie it's onto the 8th page!!) of nonsense about the four field trips of the semester and how they informed my understanding and (future) practice of baptism, completely done. In approximately 2 hours. It's all about Mozart, i tell you. I've had the double cd set of the last five symphonies playing all day long. (most of yesterday too, actually...) And now the paper is done and while it isn't good, it isn't terrible either.

Hopefully this smart thing will keep going while I parse the nearly 50 verbs in the hebrew translation. the actual translation is finished, thankfully...and it was fun! yay!

did i mention that i went for a run this morning and it was really cold outside and my lungs hate me? no? well...in addition to the early morning bike ride of Friday, from which my lungs have not recovered, i went for a run this morning (11:30 this morning, mind you, not like 6am or something) and it was cold outside and my lungs hate me. I don't quite know what to do about that right now. SO i think i'll go practice my choir music before tomorrow's rehearsal. Our Advent service of Lessons and Carols in the chapel is on Wednesday. woohoo!

heheheeheh! I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at this. Many thanks to anna for putting this on her blog, because it made my day...and my procrastinating on this paper a lot more interesting! hehehe!

In other news, there are 4.5 words in the Hebrew translation that I can't figure out. And I have a paper to write for tuesday morning, ideally this afternoon so i can go to trivia night at Twains tomorrow night! AND: we are decorating the chapel for advent this afternoon. woohoo! I love the smell of christmas tree pieces and the look of bowlfulls of candles in the windows. yay!

Friday, November 29, 2002

microwaving in plastic can kill you

While talking with my mother yesterday I mentioned that I had microwaved my lunch (mashed potatoes, thanks to Karen!) in a plastic container. Mom proceeded to freak out and inform me that toxic chemicals migrate from the plastic into your food during microwaving. I was like (as any skeptical-not-that-much-older-than-teen-daughter would be...) "whatever."
So today I looked into it.
here is what I found out.

See for yourself.
you won't die, i promise. at least, not because of that.

In other news, I read today that the Lyric Opera of Chicago has had to make some changes to the schedule for 2003-2004 (for budget reasons--they want to maintain their beautifully balanced budget (now in its 15th year) through their 50th anniversary year). Instead of a wonderful, under-played Bizet opera, they are going to do....
...
...
...
...
...
(hold your breath)
...
...
...
(so you don't gasp and choke yourself)
...
...
...
...
Pirates of Penzance.

I know, I know...the Lyric!!! I'm shocked as well.
at least it will be good, even if it is a sellout.
oy.

Thursday, November 28, 2002

I remember now why I don't have a tv.
because there is never anything on. At the house where I am staying, they have at&t broadband cable. hundreds of channels. is there anything on, ever? no. it was quite distressing, though, how i sat mindlessly watching for a couple of hours, thinking how there was nothing on and yet i was watching it. that, ladies and gentlemen, is why i do NOT have a television. because there's never anything on, but i'd watch it anyway. bad news.

anyway, that's all on that. i watched a bit of the macy's parade this morning, and was kind of sad i wasn't standing on broadway watching it myself. Then I saw the weather there--27 degrees! and was happy that I was sitting in a 70 degree house in a town where the outside temperature was high enough that I went out without a coat this morning (sweatshirt, yes, fleece, no...) to walk the dog. ha! take that, chicagoans! it's cold up there, and you've had snow, and you haven't seen the sun in ages...and here it's "cold" and it's in the upper 40's and it's sunny. yay! :-)

happy thanksgiving to all...remember why you are thankful (and not just because of all the stuff you have...because that makes this into yet another materialist holiday!) and remember those who are thankful with so much less....and eat some mashed potatoes. but leave some for me! yum yum yum....

Dogs.
I don't like them.
Housesitting.
I like it.
However, people who need housesitters generally have pets.
This holiday time, I am housesitting for a classmate.
She and her fam have a dog.
BUT: I love this dog. It is a husky, and I have never seen such a beautiful dog in my entire life. and so sweet!

no one is left at school: there are literally 6 upper campus (ie dorm) dwellers left. maybe 7--but the seventh is leaving soon. crazy!

I am trying to decide whether I should answer the phone here or not. I think probably not. I'm only here a couple of days, and no one has the number here so it clearly won't be for me...unless it was the people who live here, of course. hmm. the phone just rang and i ignored it. oh well!

harry potter--i am going to see it again right now. is that lame? crazy, probably. it is one LONG movie.

i think that's all for now. happy thanksgiving, everyone! I can't wait until some people come back to school...
lol.

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

Bowling for Columbine. Very Good movie. I don't have anything to say about it right now because I'm still processing (I only just got back).
It's thanksgiving week, and down here everyone goes home for this holiday. Very odd, I think. There are only about 5 students left on campus for the holiday, and every few hours the numbers dwindle. We had 30-ish on campus this morning, and by tomorrow noon it will be 10...by thursday morning only the last 5. It's dead out there--everyone is gone, there's no class, the refectory is strangely quiet....

It's too much work to go all the way to my parent's house for thanksgiving. whatever.

I broke down and bought Cosmo, because mine was not forthcoming. Though technically, I didn't buy it. I asked a friend (who was going out to run errands anyway, supposedly) to pick it up for me. The funny part of the story is that the person asked was a guy...and I did in fact preface the request with "this is the biggest favor you'll ever be asked by a girl, and you can say no if you want..." It was very amusing. He had to buy beer to prove that he was manly while buying Cosmo--but it was so sweet of him to get it for me while I was in class! :-) thank you! you rock!

i guess that's all for now. I urge you all to see Bowling for Columbine if you get a chance. it's thoroughly thought-provoking.
I also suggest the James Bond movie. heheheheh!

Bond. good movie. it was a little long, and very action packed, and had some bad blue-screen moments, and the "double" entendre was less double than usual, but it was very worth the $6 spent on it. i was amused, i saw it with friends, which made it even more amusing. Overall it was actually quite good. I recommend it.

I went to a birthday party for our organist today, and it was good fun. I actually had a good time hanging out with crazy church music types. hehehehehehe! :-) And to top off the evening with Bond and some of the boyz was good fun. now, though, i've watched three movies in two days (HP yesterday, Trains Planes and Automobiles last night (which was very funny--i was definitely amused, which is the goal of a saturday evening really), and Bond today) so my back is sore. sadly.

I hope my Cosmo arrives tomorrow. I need that magazine before the holidays! :-)

I'm going to bed now. I have to be up in just over 6 hours. ugh. goodnight.

Sunday, November 24, 2002

Harry Potter was quite good, but there were some noticeable changes from the book. Now, granted, I re-read the book this morning before going to the movie this afternoon, but still. It's rather important that Harry turn up at the Malfoy's in the floo powder incident, and that Riddle see the phoenix healing Harry's wound...but anyway, it was good fun. Afterwards we ate ice cream and chatted.
My evening was thoroughly enjoyable (perhaps one of the best parts of the day...), spent with Matt watching a movie in his room and chatting about everything and nothing. it was good fun, nice to relax, etc.

I realized today that Hebrew must be crowding English out of my brain. I couldn't come up with really normal words in mid-sentence, at least three or four times in the last two days. that's not good, not good at all. I learned all that GRE vocab for a reason! (oh wait, that was to take the gre...never mind then...) in any case, it's frustrating not to have the words you want at the moment you want them. oy.

i think i will not be in church tomorrow. i should really clean my room. ugh. tomorrow night is both a birthday party AND i'm going to the new Bond movie! woohoo! :-) Bond...James Bond...
yay!

Saturday, November 23, 2002

the hebrew quiz today wasn't bad--it was almost all from the homework. big thanks to chris who did the homework with me! :-)
the ASO tonight was quite good--but with some issues that I can hardly believe other people didn't notice. i'm sure they did, and probably had conversations in cars very similar to ours.
i can't even recreate it for you, but basically it was about the soloist/conductor being together (or not...), the violin section, the tuning in some sections--each piece was carefully reviewed, movement by movement.

It was almost like I was back in musician-land, debriefing after a concert i'd just played.

i'm glad i don't do that anymore.

I love the assistant principal clarinet player. he's a good Eb player, and a Very Good principal player. There was only one thing that occasionally annoyed me about his playing, compared to his principal chair colleague, who does something new every time i hear her.

all in all, the concert was quite good. the people sitting behind us annoyed the crap out of all of us, but other than that...

i am going to see harry potter tomorrow after lunch. i must go now to finish re-reading the book. i'm halfway through.
goodbye!

Friday, November 22, 2002

yay for friday.

today is the last hebrew quiz. ever. only one vocab quiz, one "extra credit" project, and the final. and then it's over--until exegesis begins in february.

tonight i am going to the ASO...they are doing the Tchaikovsky DMajor violin concerto, Prokofieff fifth symphony, and a contemporary piece called "Blitz" by a very young composer. it premiered in fall of 1999 when the composer was 23 years old. i am currently 22 years old. hmm. however, i am reserving judgment on the piece until i hear it (though from reading the program notes about it on the web, it sounds shady...), so you may hear from me later tonight saying how fabulous he is even so young, or how he needs to spend some more time on his next work. lol.

my cosmo has still not arrived. this is very distressing to me. if it doesn't come today (which doesn't look promising, frankly), i am going to buy one. of course, that will result in the magazine immediately arriving monday morning. oy.

i am going to go memorize Isaiah 40.1-11 for Scripture Reading now. today is the last scripture reading class. the semester is nearly over! After Thanksgiving we only have one week of class, then finals! wow. so fast, yet so long.
anyway...ta.

Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Ok...so last week's hebrew quiz was less successful than i would have liked. however, it was (excessively) generously graded....but i still need to be better this week. to that end, i am doing homework prior to thursday night this week.
however, i am also supposed to be reading some Very Long thing for Reformed...and i do mean Very Long. I am at the library reading, actually, because i have re-learned something about myself:

I cannot do homework at home.

I get distracted. i clean, i play on the internet, i do other things, i talk on the phone, i read, i re-organize, i do nothing, i take naps, etc. In Chicago i used to go to restaurants, bars, bookstores, church, etc, to do homework--because i knew I didn't get work done at home. here, though, can't do that. nothing is close by, the public transportation is terrible, i don't have a car, and there aren't really many of those things around anyway. so i am trying, for the first time in my life, to study at the library. in undergrad i only went INSIDE the library about 10 times in four years, and 7 of those times were to make tapes for listening exams. the other three...umm..twice for my historical jesus research and once for my thesis research. of course, i return books in the bookdrop in the hallway (because that was on my way to class! LOL). so here i am trying to learn to study in the library. the thing is, it's very quiet, and i can't study in the part of the library where people can talk because i know those people. i need a degree of noise, but i need it to be coming from people i don't know and conversations i don't have even the slightest interest in. that's why restaurants, starbucks, bookstores, bars, etc are good places. but i'm trying--because i won't get any studying done at all if i don't learn to study here i don't think. i've been trying to do homework at home for the last 10 weeks, but i've realized that my time-management skills aren't so good. oy. too many naps. so there you go: me, at the library. I've spent more time in the library in the last two days than the first 10 weeks of school combined. heheheheh!

anyway, i'm done now. i should be reading about the sin of human pride. for 40 more pages. ugh.
ta.

Saturday, November 16, 2002

Last night's ASO concert was very good. They did a new piece commissioned for them called "Cityscapes", which is about Atlanta. They did the 4th of Rachmaninoff's piano concerti. They did the Pines of Rome (the reason I went to the concert). It was a good concert, and I was again impressed with the level of playing in the ensemble. I was disappointed in the clarinet solo in Pines because I thought the woman was tired and had some difficulty making it all work (at least at first)--but granted that is a HARD solo to play. HARD. So anyway, it was a good performance.
The audience, on the other hand. They need to learn to be a good deal more discerning and a good deal less southern. They gave a standing ovation for every piece! This is completely unnecessary. One should only stand when really thoroughly moved by the excessively magnificent quality of a performance. Otherwise, the standing ovation means nothing. The woman seated next to me was of a similar mind and we had a discussion about that.
Now, as for the offstage brass ensemble...they, of course, come onstage for the last few minutes of the Pines...one of the trumpet players was SO cute. wow. he didn't have a ring on...........which the woman next to me pointed out could simply mean that it was hard to play the trumpet with the ring on (whatever). hehehe! I didn't meet him or anything--the point is simply that he was cute. and they were very good. I love the Pines of Rome.
So anyway, that's all I have to say for now, I think. I have things to do this weekend that I need to get a move on. :-) ta.

Friday, November 15, 2002

today's favorite person, number 1the woman at united airlines who was so helpful to me when i needed to change a ticket today and missed the free-change window by three minutes. she called around, worked hard, and hooked me up with a change to my flight for no charge. i love her! i told her she was my favorite person, she asked what she was getting for christmas! I told her anything she wanted, and i'd be more than happy to send a card! woohoo! that was great. i thought for sure i would have to pay $100, or cry, or both. but no! yay!

today's favorite person, number 2 (a VERY close second)
Christopher. he taught me hebrew today, which was excellent. it was humbling to me to literally have no idea what was going on, and very uplifting to know at least most of it when we left the library! yay! i hope he got something out of all that, because I know i did. Thank you! :-) you rock!

Thursday, November 14, 2002

yeah, so hebrew is harder this week than usual. i don't like that at all. and i'm tired and want to take a nap until tomorrow. is that so bad? i have much OT reading to do, sadly, so no napping right now!

something bizarre has happened to my cursor, and now it has a little "flag" type thing on the top. it is very weird. I thought it would go away if i turned off my puter, but it didn't. well, when the puter was off obviously the cursor was gone too. but now that the puter is back on, the little flaggy-type-thingy is still there. i don't think i like it very much.

tonight's dinner doesn't sound very good. in fact, it sounds gross. i may need to go out. hehehe. the only thing about being here is that it's ice cream sundae bar night. mmmm.... maybe i stay for ice cream then go out for dinner. heheh!

why hasn't my new Cosmo come in the mail yet?

I was on hold at United Airlines for a long time today, but it was worth it. i missed the cut-off for free itinerary changes by less than 5 minutes...so the woman was super nice and worked out a way that i could change a flight and not get charged. it took some time (my whole nap time actually) but was totally worth it. woohoo!

i'm going to go see if anyone else wants to bail on dinner. catch y'all later....

so, we'll start here: i do NOT agree with the death penalty. i don't think that killing people to prove that killing is wrong is a productive way to teach a lesson. hello, teaching by example? I also think that life in prison, locked away from other people forever, is a FAR greater punishment than death.

the movie was good, it was engaging, it was serious, it was worrying, it was all these things. it also reminded me of when my friend Hillary was abducted and murdered a couple of years ago. it was a very hard time, and i cannot even imagine what her parents felt. however, they were the ones who did NOT want the death penalty, in spite of the fact that the man had multiple offenses and was escaped (or paroled or something) when it all happened. however, he has been sentenced to death. he has also been sentenced to 72 years for without parole for the kidnapping and car theft. when i read that part i was very happy, but i'm sad that the death penalty has not yet been avoided. well, as happy as one can be given the fact that a friend, colleague, sister of a friend/babysitting charge, daughter of good friends had been missing for over two weeks before being found dead in a field. i found an article about the sentencing a few weeks ago. if i can find it again i'll post the link here.

in the meantime, i have much homework to do and some avoidance of sleep to engage in. i cannot even imagine the brutality depicted in the murders shown in that movie, or the stress of watching an execution. several of us literally covered our eyes when the needle was put in. ugh. so yeah, i'm avoiding bed for now because i don't want to see that again. and besides, i have homework to do.

Wednesday, November 06, 2002

ok. the Old Testament paper is done. Not good, but done.
My laundry is done.
I haven't done any Hebrew homework for several days. oy.
I have not read anything for Reformed Theology tomorrow.
I am flying out of here tomorrow afternoon.
Tomorrow night I will be in Chicago. yay!

I guess technically it's today. But not really, because I haven't been to bed and woken up again.

BUT: fyi, i may not be posting again for a few days. we'll see how it goes. at the latest, Monday. at the earliest, tomorrow.

Monday, November 04, 2002

that would be: nothing. I am wasting time on the internet. sound familiar?

by the way: would you people who "hate" my blog please leave comments or sign the guestbook or something? I mean, honestly. it's like you're just voting me down to vote yourselves up, and that's shady. whatever happened to criticism, especially constructive? do you expect anyone to have a blog you like if you don't tell them what you don't like? And really, do you think it hurts my feelings that you don't like reading about my life? if it did, bloghop wouldn't be on my page because my ego wouldn't be able to take it. so just tell me what you don't like. I'll read it, then decide whether or not to ignore it. :-)

i'm going to start reading for this paper now. class in 1.5 hours. (not the one where the paper is due, thankfully!)

Sunday, November 03, 2002

Mendelssohn's Elijah at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert tonight was fantastic! woohoo! It was completely amazing. I loved it. :-) i went at literally the last minute...a friend came in and said "we have an extra ticket and we're leaving in ten minutes, do you want to come?" and I went. It was fabulous. Wow. yay!
I don't want to do anything now, just bask in the glow of a wonderful musical experience...yeah.

Saturday, November 02, 2002

Thursday, October 31, 2002

i must do hebrew homework tonight. last night i slept instead. this is not good.
i want to socialize and talk and play and whatever, but i will be hanging out in my room tonight. woohoo!
HOWEVER: there will be children of my classmates and teachers coming through for trick or treating, which will be so fun! :-)

anyway, i realize that I've been rather boring lately, and i apologize. the grass is growing back (though there is still the River Kwai that runs across the quad because of the incessant sprinklers and the big rainstorms...), i haven't heard anything out-of-the-ordinary come from the president, and nothing exciting is happening here right now, just hebrew, papers, class, etc. I do have some things to say about the recent actions by groups within the Presbyterian Church, but I am holding out until I experience some of the conversation and atmosphere of some of the competing groups first hand. so...more on that later.

I am going home to church next week! A conference Thursday through Saturday, mushrooms at Duke and dancing at Roscoes on Saturday night, church on sunday morning! woohoo! :-) I'm sure I'll have things to say after that. but that is still 6 days away. in the meantime, i have to read Ezekiel, and go discover what nightmares are in store for dinner tonight. ta.

Wednesday, October 30, 2002

the sun has come back!
after the thunderstorms of the early part of the week, the glorious sunshine has returned. yay! I love sun.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't mean that it's necessarily warm outside. I only mean that it is sunny. At least that gives the illusion of warm! I would rather it be cool and sunny than warm and cloudy, frankly. After all, part of the reason I moved down here, to the South (said with a slightly haughty southern drawl...) is the weather, which HAS, by default, to be better than Chicago. Not that I don't love it "up north", but really--the weather was a little ridiculous.

anyway, I'm still working on being open minded about "praise" music and whatnot. So far I think I'm doing well. I'm sort of easing into it with some music about God, much of which reminds me of pop music but some of which i can see in a worship/prayer context. We'll see how long this whole open-minded thing lasts. I hope a while; after all you do deal with all kinds of people and the different ways people worship and pray in the church at large! I find myself actually liking some of this. Having said that, I still love contemporary hymnody from the world church, and sometimes i even love the traditional hymns.

anyway, i'm supposed to be working on a paper here--and i have hebrew in 20 minutes, probably with a quiz. Maybe I'll abandon the paper temporarily and memorize some vocab. yes....

back to school.
after a week "off" i don't want to go back to class...but i did anyway. I've even done the homework! I went to Reformed Theology today all psyched about the Westminster Confession, and left class tired. lol.
i have some hebrew work to get done now--we are just proofing our project. yay!

Sunday, October 27, 2002

this is slightly weird, but i just want to go home and go to church.
is that so wrong, to miss your home church, as a seminary student?
I've visited only a couple of churches here, but so far, not so much. I cannot wait until two weeks from today, when i will be back at The Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. yay!

I did not take a nap today. aren't you proud of me?
granted, i slept until about 10am, but still.
i cleaned my apartment a little--i even vaccuumed!
i did homework.
i watched a movie.
i wrote letters.
i am remembering right now to change my clocks! fall back, everyone...

yeah. i'm going to read a book now, and go to bed. maybe i'll even go to church tomorrow! three weeks in a row would be a record for me so far this school year.....
yes, i shall go to church. :-) as long as my clocks get changed...
ta

Saturday, October 26, 2002

In answer to those of you complaining about the choices of water in the poll:

too bad.
I am not changing it again, because that resets all the votes, etc, and it generally a hassle. And besides, I can only list up to ten choices, so I can't possibly satisfy everyone. I only added Dasani because I live in Coke-land and don't want to alienate others in the coke monopoly situation. so there. just vote for one, would you? thanks....

and if you want a new poll, give me some ideas! I have to come up with them all on my own, and sometimes that can be hard. hence the reason polls run for such a long time.

btw: the poll about being sick: most of you preferred "throwing up". "ralphing" and "hurling" got no votes, the rest got a few. The second most popular was, I believe, "tossing my cookies". hehehe! that's just gross.
anyway....work. yes, much work to be done.

I am so good. My birthday was a mere four days ago, and already I have written my thank-you cards. Normally, within four months is an acceptable time frame for me. This is a new record, I think. I am so impressed with myself.
I felt that I needed to share that with you. :-) Thank you in advance for your congratulations.

Ok, so last night at Backstreet. It was a pretty good time! We got there around 12:30am, and it was almost totally dead. We took in the cabaret show for a while, and though the dance floor was still deserted at 2am, we (six of us) went down and danced our hearts out. It started to pick up around 3 or 3:30...we left just after 3:30 because a couple of people were tired. We had SO MUCH FUN. hehehe! I love dancing.
I went to bed at 5am. I wanted to get up for breakfast but couldn't bring myself to do that. I've taken mid-day naps longer than that sleep time. So I slept until 9am, and managed to be early! for the 10am staff meeting. After lunch I did Hebrew. lots of hebrew. at starbucks. woohoo! I love starbucks.
after hebrew i hung out with chris, which was good fun. :-) i took a nap too. this was a Very Good thing. :-) I like naps. heheheheh!

anyway, yes. today was a good day. :-)
There are lots of smileys in this post. I kind of wish blogger turned them into right-side-up smileys, but it doesn't.
i have lots of letters to write now. I decided not to go to the war protest in DC this weekend, much as i feel that it is important to protest war, because i didn't get any homework done all week, and i have thank yous and general correspondance that is SO BEHIND that needs to get done before school gets back into full swing. And I wasn't feeling as well as I would hope for a protest--so i will be watching the news, looking for my classmates. NO WAR!!

Thursday, October 24, 2002

well, the Reformed theology exam is over. it wasn't as bad as i expected.
AND: I got my Old Testament midterm back! And I got an A! Walter Brueggemann wrote "excellent!" on the top of my paper. This is very exciting, because he gave me a B on my first paper for him. I feel happy...woohoo!

Tuesday, October 22, 2002

So anyway, my birthday was great. Thanks to all of you who made it so!
I did my midterm paper in the morning. In the afternoon, I went to Borders and read a book, which was very good. I also purchased said book (The Piano Tuner) and two CDs. And the new Cosmo.
Then we went to Costco, where I was able to buy water, cereal, mac-n-cheese...and MJ bought me a birthday cake! woohoo! I knocked on all the nearby doors and everyone came over and we ate cake, which was very exciting.
In the night we had a little slumber party--Amy and Katie stayed over, we got John to come over and Tyesha came too, and we made fun drinks and laughed and listened to music and had a fun time. We were quite loud, which isn't so good because Miranda had to sleep (although we thought she was gone--all her lights were off so early, we thought she had gone out, but she was sleeping. I'm sorry!!) so she could work this morning, but we had a lot of fun!
Today i have done essentially nothing. I copied Sarah's notes from the Reformed Theology class up to the midterm from last year...I took a nap, I read some more of my book. Now i'm here alone at last (everyone is gone) and I'm still not doing anything. I'm not going to dinner tonight because it's gross...I need to wash my dishes....I need to study for ReThe...I need to work on Hebrew...oy. yes. and there is Taize tonight at 7:30pm. yay.
i'm going now. ta.

today I rode MARTA for the first time. It wasn't very exciting, which is probably for the best. The train is much quieter than the El. It is also 25 cents more than the CTA. Whatever. It still runs on tokens, which I think is very funny and outdated.

I went to Central Presbyterian for the first time today. Lots of people from school go there. It sounded like it would basically be Fourth Church....but there were some notable differences. First, it's smaller. Second, there are SO MANY ANNOUNCEMENTS I WANTED TO KILL MYSELF. during the "ritual of friendship" there were about 10 announcements. Then during "concerns of the church" there were easily 10 more announcements. I was so irritated...it was like having someone read to you the community announcement channel or something. UGH. People, print the announcements in the bulletin, highlight three, and get on with it!!! No one remembers when you just tell them a list of 20 announcements! GRR.

I ate tabouleh for the first time.

I also ate soba for the first time.

both were very good.

I made fresh berry smoothies for the first time since I moved here. They were excellent.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I really must get on this midterm. It must get done today. Too bad I don't know what the directions of part II mean.....oy. this could turn out to be interesting...

Saturday, October 19, 2002

i fully recognize that two posts ago (ie yesterday) my statement that i never want to type or say that phrase again is foolish...after all, i'm in a class that focuses on the book of confessions. and i'm studying to be a pastor in a confessional church. but really, the number of times that statement appeared in my outline was ridiculous. it was probably possible to sum up the entire essay by saying "every single thing the church or individuals in the church think, say, do, want to do, should do, etc, should be informed and evaluated by the confessional standards/in light of the confessions of the church...and the consensus is always more important/given more priority than individual dissenting voices, though those should be listened to and considered carefully..."
aaaaa!

by the way, whoever voted that I am going to be 18 in two days: you are very wrong. hehehe!

ok, so i spent some time this morning playing with the fonts of this page. i think it is better now...what do you think?
I hope itis more readable, a little more fun, and generally that this fabulous blog will be a more enjoyable experience for all involved. :-)

Right now, the thought of ever again typing or saying the phrase "_________ should be evaluated and informed in light of the theological and ethical content of the confessional standards of the church" makes me ill.
that is the basic point of an essay in the PC(USA) Book of Confessions called "The Confessional Nature of the Church" which I have just outlined for my classmates' use in studying for the Reformed Theology midterm. I know more about the confessional nature of the church than i think is really necessary. ugh.

anyway, i know i haven't really been here in a while. I've been studying a lot this week, which is good. Next week is reading week, thank goodness! I am so happy to have a week off classes. I do have to write an Old Testament midterm, and I do have to take an exam on Thursday, but other than that life is good! My birthday is on Monday (just three days away now!), I am going dancing on Thursday (woohoo!), I don't have to go to class....yes, it is good. :-)

So: exciting things I have done this week.
1. Hebrew. Hebrew is lovely, and gets more exciting every time I am able to translate new parts of the Bible.
2. I went to an anti-war protest! this was my first protest and it was very exciting. George W was in town to campaign for the dumber of the two dumb guys running for office down here. There was quite a good turn out of people, all with signs, chants, and whatnot, asking, pleading, demanding, praying that there be no war. It was fabulous! I am planning to go with a bunch of people from school and with Presbyterians from around the country to Washington DC next weekend for the big anti-war rally. That should be fun!
3. Cleaned my room. Especially my desk. I couldn't see the desk just 36 hours ago. Now there is an actual desktop to my right, and a substantially smaller stack of paper to my left. This is good because I discovered that there was nothign crucial hiding in my piles, but there was lots of trash, which I got rid of. yay!

My panic attack of the week:
today when I was typing this outline. I had done five pages but hadn't saved yet...and my computer started to freak out. nothing was happening and I was very afraid. I begged it to work, i tried an emergency save, i tried to shut down what i thought was the offending program (the jukebox), nothing was happening, or at least it wasn't happening very fast...ultimately i had to shut down the computer. Thankfully the emergency save had worked. If it hadn't I would have cried right here in my room. Half an outline on the confessional nature of the church. I was understandably distressed. now, however, i am happy as a clam (well, assuming clams are happy in their somewhat limited sphere of life) and the outline is done. woohoo!

Follow up on the note about the flu shot: my arm hurt for three days. One day my whole body ached. Now, however, I'm pretty good. I tried stretching the muscle but that made it worse. Now it's down to an "if i lift my arm like this...it hurts" to which the standard old joke response is "don't lift your arm then...". So I'm not. I consider this a small price to pay for the illness-free flu season I am about to enjoy. Since I live in a dormitory again (for the first time in four years) a flu shot was a good investment. A friend went with me to hold my hand because I hate needles, and his arm has been hurting too (yes, he got a shot too--the arm pain isn't my fault!) so i at least don't feel like quite as much of a wuss. hehehe.

for those of you following the saga of the grass: it's kind of there. But, as Miranda pointed out, it looks like hair plugs in some places. If you look from afar it looks beautiful...if you get up close it is simply clumps of grass every few inches (interestingly enough, right where those holes from aerating the grass were......). Some places are growing back better than others. Trouble spots are still the mud baths. go figure.

anyway, i think i might relax now. read a book, or something. yeah.....no. maybe run around and play. hehehe!

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

it is wednesday. perhaps if i keep saying that, i'll remember.
because then i'll be in class on time. yes. it is wednesday.
it is also a measly five days until my birthday. several of you have voted for how old you think i'll be. All I'm going to say right now (partially because i need to be getting ready for class) is that a majority of you are correct. now, if you chose wrong, you may think you're in the majority...but you aren't. sorry.
time to go to school.
it is wednesday, after all.

Monday, October 14, 2002

Hebrew...pub quiz....Hebrew...pub quiz...
I think Hebrew might have to win.
After all, last week I missed three things on the grammar quiz.
Besides, maybe if we take a week off, we'll come back being BRILLIANT next week.
right?

I don't really have much interesting to say today. i'm sorry.

I love chai tea.

that's all. thank you.
except: the latest google search to lead someone here was "phone actress". heheheheh. I kind of wish i was one now, just so i could say that!

That's right. In spite of (or because of) all my bitter projections about the return of grass, the grass has returned. Granted, it's not all back, and there are still patches where there's more standing water and moss than grass, but for the most part the grass is growing. If you look at it from afar (ie not right on top of it) it appears to be full and lovely. If you are nearby, however, you see that it's still quite thin and there's a lot of ground showing through. But really, this is progress, people! Very exciting.

I did all my Hebrew homework for a change. aren't you proud of me? should be...

i am having typing issues so i am going to bed now. see y'all later. :-)

Sunday, October 13, 2002

I actually went to church this morning.
This is something of a miracle, because I have not been to a church (aside from chapel) for three weeks, maybe four. I've been sleeping, or sick. but i went today. woohoo!
It is also a bit of a miracle because the power went out, and thus no alarm clock was happening. the power went out several times during the night, a couple of which i noticed (because i fell asleep with my light on, so when it went off i knew, and also my printer turns on when power returns, which is not exactly a quiet thing...), and apparently once at about 9-ish this morning, which i did not notice. I was awakened by a phone call at 10am. and managed to get into church by 10:55. this was wonderful.
anyway, i have much homework to do.
:-)

Saturday, October 12, 2002

Today was long.
*8am class. thankfully my OT small group has decided to meet over breakfast, so i go to breakfast at 8 and we discuss over the meal. the lecture today was kind of long too, and not nearly as amusing as usual. Kathleen O'Connor was a guest lecturer, and while she is absolutely brilliant, she's not an exciting lecturer.
*i had a coughing fit during chapel, but couldn't leave because i was in the opposite corner from the door, and was in the middle of the choir. (the coughing was during the sermon, and had thankfully ended by the time we had to sing.) the only thing anyone around me had was a) a Tootsie Pop or b) cinnamon altoids. I went with the altoids, which didn't really work but was close enough. i have never coughed so much...i thought i was going to die in the middle of the sermon about being living stones.
*i missed three things on my hebrew quiz. (my lowest grade so far)
*scripture reading was an eternity.
*i took a nap.
*i went to a WIIM (women's issues in ministry) event to welcome the new church history professor. it was very fun.
*i went out with a bunch of friends and we had a good time.
*we wanted to go bowling...because there was an inter-seminary event tonight: overnight bowling from 11pm to 2am. unfortunately, we weren't sure which bowling alley it was at, so after we tried the closest one, we gave up.
*we had dessert at a totally shady place but the dessert was SO good. mmm...warm brownie with ice cream and fudge sauce. mmm....warm chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and raspberry sauce. mmmm....
*we hung out at amy's house, but were all too tired to do anything. so now i'm home, it's almost 1:30am, and i am SO EXCITED to sleep in tomorrow.

I have to do laundry tomorrow.
and maybe learn hebrew, since i didn't do such a good job of that this week, apparently. Granted, two of my mistakes were dumb, and one was brought on by not thoroughly knowing pronoun vocabulary. I looked up the word, and it said "thou" so...i wrote "they" instead of "you". this is not smart. This is what happens when one is concerned about time. Let this be a warning to you all: BE CAREFUL.

I'm going to sleep now because I'm not amusing anyone, even myself.
good night.

Friday, October 11, 2002

yay! I regained my voice in time for the service tonight. It was a wonderful service, absolutely wonderful. It was inclusive, it was prayerful, it was celebration and lament, it was...everything that worship should be. I loved it.
it was also interesting to be worshipping in a house--much as the early church did. I felt a little like i could be in one of Paul's churches.

anyway, i hope i can still sing tomorrow---i kind of gave a lot tonight.

in other news, this is an incredibly interesting blog written by a homeless man. i am absolutely intrigued by it. i recommend it, as it puts a human face on homelessness.

Thursday, October 10, 2002

i can almost talk and sing again! woohoo!
by the time i need to sing tonight i should be all good. this is Very Good, because one of the things I'm supposed to sing is unknown by everyone else here. That would create a problem for getting someone else to do it on such short notice!
Anyway, it's almost time to go to the Farmers Market. I love that place.

Someone got here from a search for "clever title for music". I hope you found what you were looking for...

my air conditioner is making a strange sound. not all the time, just occasionally. like leaves or something falling inside. it's very weird. i thought it might be bugs, but no bugs have emerged. it could be water i guess, but there's no water anywhere to be seen on the floor....

Big thanks to Chris today for teaching me Hebrew.
Since I didn't go to Hebrew either (part of the get-well program: a sick half-day...every other class...you know) Chris came over and helped me through all the stuff we did today.
I just need to point out that Hebrew is a language that appears to have more prefixes and suffixes than actual words. You can practically say a whole sentence in one word. A long sentence. GRR.
Anyway, thanks Chris!

Wednesday, October 09, 2002

I had to make a decision this morning.

between going to class (8am) and sleeping so that I might have a chance to actually get well enough to go to all the rest of my classes for the rest of the semester (or at least until reading week when i suppose theoretically i would be able to recover).

I chose to sleep in the hopes that i would get well. after all, one cannot recover from illness without slowing down a little, right? given how i felt at 6:45am, i haven't slowed down enough. so i sacrificed a class to my physical well being. so far, i think this was a wise choice. however, i haven't seen anyone from class yet (it only just ended right now) so i don't know if i maybe missed the best class ever. Brueggemann is out of town so it was being taught by Marcia Riggs, a feminist OT scholar. it was probably fab, but my bed was equally fab, if not more so.

so anyway, i have to do homework now. we probably have a hebrew vocab quiz today, and i haven't learned any of the vocab. it's time.

Tuesday, October 08, 2002

13 days to go.

sadly, we might not live that long, because the president is going to get us all killed.

I do not like him at all. And what is this crap about "murderous dictators?" Does Bush realize that he is one?
Why is it that only we are allowed to have nuclear weapons but no one else is? and we "allow" people to have weapons? what are we..the global big brother? remember how that's never worked before and isn't going to work now?
has anyone ever thought that iraq (and hundreds of other countries) have had weapons of various sorts, armies, etc, and haven't used them? why are they going to suddenly start now?

oh wait, because they are PISSED OFF by the US government's incendiary speech and demeaning and demanding actions?

no, that can't be it. we're the only good people in the world, remember?

or there was.
until last night's big thunderstorm, which happened in addition to the sprinkler system being on.
now there is potential new grass on some of the lawn, and a return of the swamp (and probably its attendant swamp monster) in the section by the library, which was--at one time--a perfect wiffle ball field.

It was very exciting, the other day, to be walking to class and realize that there were small shoots of green popping up all over the quad. But now that green is dead, replaced by dark green moss, dark red clay, and dark brown mud. Not good, not good at all. See below (or maybe its in the archives now, i don't know...in any case, last week-ish) for what I said about seed vs. sod.
(for those who don't have time to look: i said seed would never work for various reasons)

huh.

I am not sick anymore. Only my throat is sick. it's all funny feeling and sometimes I cough but not really cough. in other words, it's coughing with no purpose. it doesn't get me any closer to clearing my throat. this is bad because we have choir rehearsal this afternoon. I hope it clears up by thursday (ideally) because we have to sing then.

all last night, the physical position of "upright" led to the physical action of "throwing up". I'm aware that this may be too much information for some of you. frankly, I don't care that much because I was sick all night long. I think I feel better this morning, but can't be sure because I'm a little afraid to eat. anyway...
i think i might put up a new poll today, but i don't know if i'll like it so it may not stay up very long. vote fast.

Saturday, October 05, 2002

i hate being sick.
a big group of people went dancing last night. they had a lot of fun and were out Very Late. not me.
i hate being sick.
maybe next friday i can go dancing. that would be good. maybe next friday i can go to the big gay club. next friday is National Coming Out Day. it should be fun to be at a gay club then, right? there will be especially few people there to hit on me. i like that, because i don't want people hitting on me because i'm too busy to have a boyfriend. i'm practically too busy to have friends. i don't even send email anymore because i'm so busy.
ok, so i have time to post on my blog. but you know what i mean. lots of reading. and now lots of head-cold, which means lots of naps. i like naps. but i wish i could have gone dancing.
anyway. i'm going to do some "homework". translation: i'm going to take a nap.

good times on the hebrew quiz today! except that i was working pretty quickly and I misread "banim" as "banot" and put daughters instead of sons...so my grade was only "almost perfect" instead of "perfect". this makes me a little sad. i really did know it! aaaah!!!
so--no dancing tonight because not feeling well. this is very sad. i want to go dancing! really really really. but no. no gay clubs for me this weekend. cry. i love gay clubs.

so anyway, we watched this week's episodes of changing rooms. good! well, one person didn't like their new dining room (on a boat! it was so cool!) but other than that it was excellent.

i am going to bed earlier than ever--i'll be in bed by midnight! fab! i am soooooo looking forward to sleeping. maybe i'll get well and my throat will stop being retarded. i hope so because i have to sing next week. oy. so anyway. goodnight, and happy hebrew to all.

btw: i joke all the time about getting west nile because of my mosqiuito-bite-prone self. tonight i got about 10 bites while loading miranda's new-to-her couch in the car (because amy basically lives in the forest...). but i can't really joke about it because one of my classmates' daughter really does have west nile--it was diagnosed yesterday. that is not good, but better than whatever they thought she had. apparently. i hope she gets well. and i hope i don't get it.
really hope. i hate being sick. and hebrew does not allow me to be ill. anyway. maybe i'll do homework this weekend. maybe not. hehehehe!

someone go dancing at a gay club for me--so i can live vicariously through you. thanks. i'll let y'all know how backstreet is once i finally get there. ta.

Friday, October 04, 2002

alright, so hebrew studying for tonight is done. i don't know about tomorrow's quiz, but whatever. all I have to say is: we can drop the lowest quiz grade.
I still need to read for OT. good times with 1 and 2 kings. woohoo!
I am feeling kind of weird--for two days I've been thinking I might be getting sick. my throat is all retarded (translation into non-teri english: inflamed and a little sore) and I have the tiniest of fevers (like 1.8 degrees). I've been taking echinacea, and i slept all afternoon, but i may not be able to go dancing tomorrow night. this makes me very sad. Very Sad. i really want to go dancing. really really really. but sleeping is fun too, i guess.
we'll see.

the week is almost over. praise the Lord. I'm ready to sleep the weekend away. though i suppose if i did homework on weekends, i wouldn't have so much to do during the week. what a novel idea. heheheheh. homework....sleep.....homework.....sleep....it is such a delicate balance. i vote for sleep. but tonight: homework. tomorrow: dancing. saturday: sleeping. yay.

Thursday, October 03, 2002

I think the baptism paper is done! Hallelujah! it's only 12:20! How did that happen? This might be the earliest I have gone to bed since school started. craziness! This paper literally just flowed out. I had six pages down in less than an hour. I love talking about myself. I had to work theology into it, which turned out to be slightly more complicated. however, I think it's done. yay!

The Hebrew quiz today was easy, as usual. However, i did have to "opt out" of baptism class today in order to study the vocab. Apparently the only thing I missed was the teacher baptizing a brussels sprout. ha! yesterday it was a cabbage. how very interesting, her apparent pre-occupation with vegetable baptism...

I am closing this evening with a plea for anagrams of "Wal-Mart". Preferably ones that involve a meaning related to "stupid". hehehe! thanks. goodnight. :-)

Wednesday, October 02, 2002

I am tired. And i will be up late again tonight, writing the baptism paper. good times, eh? my sleep count for this week is looking like, oh...8 hours over two nights? by tomorrow it could very well be at 10 hours over three. Maybe i should put a little sleep counter on here, the way anna has a candle counter. what do you think? Too bad I don't really know how to do that.

Ok ok, the poll is going down soon, I promise. By the weekend we'll have a new poll. it seems that the vast majority of you want to learn italian. No one for Aramaic. hardly surprising. LOL.

I want to go to sleep. Instead I am going to hebrew to take a quiz and whatnot. in 25 minutes, anyway. maybe i'll take a nap.

oh, update on the grass: they've poked holes in it with different machines and now have spread seed everywhere. see below for what i think of the seed idea, and keep in mind that the sprinkler system comes on every night for a couple of hours, and that thunderstorms are coming on friday.
Thankfully, it hasn't rained in two days!!! woohoo! I can hardly believe it! and it isn't supposed to rain for another whole day! I hardly know what to do with myself, all the beautiful sunshine outside. oh right, nap.
goodnight. until i wake up. yeah.

Monday, September 30, 2002

four people have voted on my blog. two voted for "hate it". I could pretend that this depresses me and whatever, but it doesn't. free speech, etc...opinions cannot be dictated. i hope they come back again and see what's new, but if not, well...their loss! hehehe.
dinner time. ta.

so today they are aerating the grass. I was under the impression this is something done to HEALTHY grass in order to keep it pretty. there is a rumor going 'round that they are planning to re-seed the grass rather than sod it. this will never work, for these reasons.
1. squirrels. and birds. but especially squirrels.
2. standing water and continuous rain.
3. clay soil that is now topped with moss and mud due to overwatering of dead, dead grass.
4. it will take forever and the board of trustees (meeting here this week) will never stand for it because it looks SO TERRIBLE right now.

so there you go.

must read. reformed theology.
i'm still needing poll suggestions....
and, by the way, i got the veggie tales song out of my head. until i just saw it on my blog again. it may have to go away from the blog so that it doesn't continuously re-instate itself in my head, because it is SO annoying.
anyway. homework. class is in one hour, 13 minutes. must read. ta.

...
...
oh, one more thing....

someone got to my site by searching for "bobblehead jesus". I think that is so cool. anyway.

if you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile, if you like to waltz with potatoes, up and down the produce aisle...."have we got a show for you." veggie tales, veggie tales, veggie tales, veggie tales...veggie tales, veggie tales, veggie tales, veggie tales....broccoli, celery, gotta be, veggie tales. lima beans, collard greens, peachy keen, veggie tales. cauliflower, sweet and sour, half an hour, veggie tales. there's never ever ever ever ever been a show like veggie tales. there's never ever ever ever ever been a show like veggie tales. it's time for veggie tales!

AAAAAAAGH! anything but this, please! ok, almost anything. oy. time to try the "spell out your name and address backwards in your head, including the zip code" method of removing songs from one's head. bye.

Homework Schmomework.
I've been watching High Fidelity this afternoon. Then, at 6:20, realized we wouldn't make it to church by 6:30 and decided to practice some silent contemplative prayer, then do homework. But first, had to make some olivata (don't quote me on that spelling because I made it up) to go with the triscuit thin crisps i bought today. then had to talk with calum. now have to post on my blog. soon the quiet time begins, i promise!

I think I am going to try this ratings thing. you can rate my blog--how cool is that? woohoo! :-) anyway, we'll see how it goes.

I'm not noticing many poll suggestions. In fact, none. I need ideas, people! Work with me here!!

Sunday, September 29, 2002

these are not necessarily related items of varying degrees of interest.
1. i have a headache.
2. i have just watched one full episode of trading spaces, one ending of same show, one episode of while you were out, and, unfortunately for me, 50 minutes of a college football game (alabama-arkansas). i had to watch the football in order to watch trading spaces. thankfully i didn't have to watch the whole game, because i would have cried. or left.
3. i am very tired. i might not go to church tomorrow. again.
4. i like to talk.
5. goodnight.

Saturday, September 28, 2002

Today I went to play with small children. It was very fun.
I also went shopping at a fabulous outlet mall and got some very good deals.
And I found out how last night's Taize service went at Fourth Church. it ws fantastic...93 people! excellent!! standing room only...there was a small fire issue apparently, but that was quickly taken care of. lol.
anyway...much homework to do...and Trading Spaces in two hours!!

Friday, September 27, 2002

Thursday, September 26, 2002

Hebrew. Rocks! woohoo!
i hope i still think that tomorrow.
i'm a little hungry, but it is SO past bedtime. so no food just now. none.
haircut tomorrow. excellent!
baptism field trip tomorrow too. fun!
must right OT paper tomorrow. less fun...
must go to bed now.
goodnight.

Wednesday, September 25, 2002

I'm not taking this poll down until more of you vote. Or vote again. ;-) (this is a clever way to disguise the fact that I can't think of another poll right now...so if you have suggestions for poll topics, please let me know! Very Clever, wouldn't you say? appropriate, given my blog title. anyway, this parenthetical statement has gone on long enough. it will now cease and desist. or cease to exist. whatever.)

I'm tired. Very Tired. And there's no time to really recover until Sunday. Oy.

Much reading to do, and a paper to write for Friday morning. Good times!!

Almost dinner time. Who knows what will be for dinner tonight. Since last night's vegetarian option had 82 grams of fat and over 1880 calories, I don't know what to expect. I hope it isn't that bad. If it is, I'll be having a salad again. And later tonight I'll be hungry and eat toast. Not that I speak from experience or anything.

Tuesday, September 24, 2002

oh yes...so yesterday i painted my toenails a new color. this was very exciting. :-)

I got back last week's Hebrew quizzes! On the top they say "PERFECT!!" This is very very very exciting. Very Exciting. both of them! two perfect scores in one week!

I have been looking into getting DSL. bad news is, it's very expensive. SO i probably won't get it even though it would be beautifully convenient. the dial up is SO incredibly slow. Although apparently it is a minor miracle that I have a phone line! Several rooms in this building don't even have phone jacks--most of the building isn't wired for telephone! that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. oy.

I am getting my hair cut in two days. This is FABULOUS. I've not gotten it cut in about four or five months, which is very excessive. It is a desperate situation. I'm so happy to be going on Thursday. So it's almost only one day! This time, two days from now, my hair will be getting dried! woohoo! a mere 48 hours. I can hardly wait.

supervised ministry meeting this afternoon. I'm not doing my supervised ministry for quite a while yet, but i'm going to the meeting anyway because we are supposed to. yippee. i'm sure it will be simply thrilling. i need a nap first. i have about 15 minutes. naptime!!

Sunday, September 22, 2002

Three things in this post. (just to warn you...don't expect smooth transitions, etc. more of a list, really...)

1. The grass has apparently been killed off on purpose because it is some kind of grass that has to be replaced every so often, and now just happens to be that time. Some kind of grass, eh? It's fabulous and low maintenance and low bugs and whatever else--but you have to kill and replant every 5-10 years. Whatever.

2. My room. I have stenciled the walls with silver stars, swirls, dots, etc. It is so cool!!! I love it! I spent my afternoon doing that yesterday rather than doing homework. Well worth it, I say! I love it! I also did a little on the coffee table. I tried to do my bookshelf, but apparently the stuff doesn't work on laminate surfaces (and given that my bookshelf is relatively cheap, it is of course fake wood laminate...). You see, I didn't just do "stencils" where you have to paint inside them, etc. I did instant stencils. You just put the design (which is on plastic) on the wall, rub, and the design is transferred onto the wall. It's like instant paint, without the work or the fumes. Good times! YAY!!

3. My homework. I have much of it to do, because I did none yesterday. So I've been working on Hebrew this afternoon, having done Reformed Theology this morning. I am thoroughly frustrated because the assignment is to figure out the root of words, and find it in the dictionary...but there are so many tricks! if there are only two letters after you remove suffixes and prefixes, you have to figure out what's missing. The catch is that it could be any of three things missing, or it could turn out that the prefix is really part of the root, or maybe one of the letters is doubled and there's no evidence.....AAAAAAAARGH!

Anyway, I took a break to have a snack. I love quesadillas, so that made me happy. Now I'm going to go visit my friend upstairs until I feel like I can deal with that again. I'll let you know how it goes. Unless I kill myself with the BDB before then. ta.

Friday, September 20, 2002

yeah. so i don't know if i posted about our grass before, but I'm going to now.

Columbia Seminary has the most beautiful lawn ever. The "Oldenburg Quad" (commonly known as the quad, but named after Douglas Oldenburg, most recent former president of the seminary...and moderator of the PC(USA) a couple of years ago) is lush, green, pure, and wonderful. So much so that Doug didn't allow people to walk on the grass, actually. That has since changed and we even have wiffle ball games out there! it's wonderful. Great for studying, socializing, playing, relaxing, looking at...

or it was.

The grass has been effectively killed off. No one knows what happened, or how, but sometime around Labor Day weekend it began to turn brown. Very brown. Almost everywhere--but not around trees. There is a theory about fertilizing without watering...and one about fungus, and one about killing the grass on purpose, and several others, of course...but the fact remains that the grass is dead. So we've gone from lush green valley to amber waves of grain.

Or they were.

Until the lawn company came and mowed it. Even though it was dead. And until tropical depression Hannah brought several inches of rain in a weekend. And it kept raining...for a week. Meanwhile the sprinkler system was still on so every night the lawn was watered. Standing water began to appear, and a hint of mud. Then the grass was mowed again--what was left of it. While it was raining.

And now, now..we have mudholes. sinkholes. elephant mud baths. perfect for spa weekend retreats. Right in the middle of the campus. The grass is gone--there is standing water, mud, and visions of a destroyed and matted root system. The entire lawn is going to have to be pulled up and re-sodded.

Except around the trees, where it is beautiful and green--and soggy.

Lush green valleys to amber waves of grain to saharan watering hole, muddied by a herd of elephants (commonly known as lawnmowers).

Good times on the grass of Columbia Seminary.

in other news, I totally rocked the Hebrew vocab quiz today. I am almost positive I got 100%. woohoo!

time to read about the Exodus. but if you don't want to do that, I recommend reading about how to make a candle. ta.

Thursday, September 19, 2002

Praise music. I think I have come to part of the root of the problem. Perhaps one of the biggest issues is the shady, exclusive theology (when there's theology at all...). But a close second is: exclusivity in singing. If you don't know the tune, too bad--no singing for you! The tunes are supposedly easy to pick up--unless you are in a congregation where half the people don't know what's going on. There's no teaching of the tune, no playing through of the melody, no "soloist will sing first verse, you join in later"...just chords and singing. And sometimes the words aren't printed! What is that? We're singing a setting of the 23rd psalm..which was already kind of hard because the worship band is singing in harmony and you don't know which one is what you're supposed to sing...and then suddenly there's a chorus. with no warning. no printed words--just follow the leader! uh huh. easier said than done.
so maybe praise music works for you. good for you! however, for me, and i think (to a certain extent, though my thinking on this is not completely clarified yet) for what the church is supposed to be trying to accomplish, praise music does not further the cause. Instead it gets people caught up in what THEY feel instead of what God does and what an appropriate response to that is--out in the world. I know music is an important part of the church--a VERY important part--but when it is all warm fuzzies about how much I love Jesus, it doesn't really get much done, does it? It doesn't nourish in such a way that I am strengthened to go out into the world and be a servant leader. It's just about me loving someone who's good--and worse, it's about me being the one doing the loving...as though that love were not in the first place a gift of grace. Can the church be engaged in proclaiming the Word in song while some of them (not everyone, because several people will be lost, not understanding the tune, or discovering that the words aren't printed on the bulletin because you should just "know" it...) are singing (perhaps mindlessly, perhaps earnestly) about how much I love Jesus? What does that love enable you to do?
Anyway. enough of the praise music for now. it's bedtime. Hebrew class in 8.5 hours. goodnight.

Wednesday, September 18, 2002

ok. so the old testament is done. hebrew homework is impossible due to lack of knowledge about something... reformed theology reading is not going to get done tonight. no baptism tomorrow!! Community day tomorrow. oy. praise music will be involved. not good. hmm. I would like to hear Walter Brueggemann's take on praise music. interesting...

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